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heathen world ! They were content to pass their lives in silent meditation , without putting forth one strong- enduring- effort to raise up their fallen fellow-creatares or to strike into their minds the light which had beamed upon their own . They looked on with philosophic equanimity , say rather with cold and cruel indifference ,
and saw millions of hutnan beings plunged in folly vice am * wretchedness , degraded , enslaved and brutalized , yet witli no comnassion for their ignorance , no sympathy ia their miseries , no generous ardour rising up and beating down all weak unmanly fears , and eagerly springing * forward to rescue them from their wretched vassalage , and to uphold the honour of human nature . No . This service was reserved for the
humble prophet of Nazareth and the poor fishermen of Galilee . To them was it left to bring down truth from the clouds , and to accomplish that wonderful revolution iu the sentiments and feelings of mankind , which the wisest of the wise were unable
to effect in a single country , nay even in a single village . Hero then is the triumph of Christianity , here is the display of her spirit , here the mightiness of her power , and here the splendour and glory of her achievements : Pp . 5—8 .
Mr . Madge next expatiates upon the importance of religion and the necessity of preserving it pure and luutefiled : which brings him to the
peculiar obj-ect of the sermon , namely , to vindicate the principles of the Unitarian Fund , as a proselytizing sodety . Having asserted the unreasonableness and the unhappy influence of the doctrine of the Trinity , he thus
strongly remonstrates against indifference to truth : " But even supposing" thai we were unable to trace this relation of one doctrine Jo another , I should still contend that an indifference to truth , and above all to
Christian truth , is a feeling" which we should he careful never to cherish . Man does not livo by bread alone : the life and walih of his soul is not sustained and preserved by the food which groweth out of l » e earth : it is nourished and strengthenea by i \\ p bread -which eometh down from
iieaveii j by anticipations and apprehensio m and active remembrances , by pa-^ ence and by hope , by love and admiratlou and joy . Without these he may live *^ mere animal lives , but not as a son of (;<) d , not as the child of immortality . He
inay foe employed in picking- up thing's mi } his feet when thoughts are perishing ^ * hb mind . Truth is not a gross , delilut ? , tan gible object . We cannot exactly ( Miniate its weight , nor measure its ex-( * nt , nor calculate tlio sum of its conse'l ^ ncea for it is ethereal ,, mighty , and
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in its effects eternal . It becomes not man therefore to trifle with this power , or to he regardless of its interests . He who thinks that it may be safely neglected knows little of the underground part of the tree of virtue , or of the hidden root which thrusts forth tlie noble stalk of
magnanimity and devotion , magnanimity in the service of man , devotion to the will of God . Take away all reverence for truth , and with it you undermine the strongest foundation of the empire of conscience , and uproot all glory from the human mind .
What ! if we are not always able to trace the chain which binds together the true and the good , does it therefore follow that there is no necessary companionship and communion between them ? IBy no means . There are links , there is a bond by which the one is for ever united to the other . If
I thought otherwise , if I could bring myself to believe that they could for any length of time be entirely dissociated , the spirit of inquiry would take its flight from my mind , and with it all faith and confidence and hope . Most cordially do I admit the innocency of involuntary error , 2 . e . that there is no crime in a man ' s
mistaking error for truth , after having used all the means in ' liis power to come at the truth ; but I never can believe that important error upon the great subject of religion can , in all its ramifications and products , be altogether innoxious . To one man indeed it may prove comparatively harmless , while to another it may be productive of the most lasting * and extensive
mischief . We do not know all the evil consequences which may flow from error , but we do know that it is our duty where we can to destroy error . But you believe in the omnipotence of truth ! What then ? Can truth prevail , can truth be omnipotent without human exertion ? Does God act
in human affairs without the instrumentality of human means ? Is not man made to he the great teacher of man ? When he falls into error , is he not now left to correct himself ? And by what means can truth finally conquer and prevail , but by open and honourable conflict ? Pp . 15—17 .
The passage that follows is a bold defence of proselylis . m . a I am aware that to * many g"ood men every thing- that looks lilve proselytigm is very obnoxious . Tliey are friends to truth and would be glad to sec it conquer and prevail , but they think it better that it
should make its way silently and unobserved . The sentiments and feelings cf tlie good are always to be treated with respect ; for this reason I take , notice of" an objection to our proceeding's which would otherwise have been passed by without observation . 1 will not then blink the fguestion , —1 will come toldly up to it ,
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Review . —Madge * s Sermon , 441
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1815, page 441, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1762/page/41/
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